Importância das flores da calabura (Muntingia calabura) para manutenção de espécies de abelhas

Abstract

Knowing the plants in a specific area, their flowering time and the characteristics of their pollen can help to assess the food supply of bees, in periods of lesser availability of bee pasture. Muntingia calabura, also known as calabura, is native to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, Central, Western and South America, also in southern Peru and Bolivia, the first seedlings were introduced in Brazil in 1962 by the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas ( IAC) in order to recover degraded areas. The main objective of this study was to show the importance of bee species visiting the calabura flowers, raising data on pollen and nectar sources, which are available at certain times of the year. The study was developed at the Native Bee Conservation Nucleus, Sector of Beekeeping and Meliponiculture, Department of Animal Science, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), Recife-PE, with a duration of twelve months of observation, from August 2018 to August 2019. The bee species were evaluated starting in the first 10 minutes of each time, between 6:00 and 17:00, with three repetitions being carried out over three different days, evaluating the collection habit of each species of floral visitors. For the statistical analysis of the data, the BIOESTAT program was used together with the Casualized Statistical Design (DIC). Tukey's test, at a 5% probability level, was used to compare means. In the observations we saw the presence of several species of insects in the collection of floral resources, however there was a predominance of bees. During the observations, 65% were from Africanized bees Apis Mellifera, (26.09%) from stingless bees Tetragonisca angustula (Jataí), (8.12%) from Trigona spinipes (irapuá) bees. Other bees were also observed, such as Melipona scutellaris (uruçu nordestina) and Pseudaugochlora gramínea, as well as Lepidoptera, Diptera and Vespids, using the flowers as a food resource. We came to the conclusion that this plant species should be part of the local flora and should be planted close to meliponaries and apiaries, being an important source of food resources (nectar and pollen) for Africanized and native bees and helping to conserve other species.